


best made at home

by asterions



Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Fate/stay night - All Media Types
Genre: Cooking Lessons, Fluff, Gen, Pancakes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 13:12:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13295598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asterions/pseuds/asterions
Summary: “Karna, son of Surya. Would you please provide me an explanation as to what happened here?”“Master wanted pancakes,” Karna replied simply, tearing off a piece off the burnt pancake and eating it.Karna and Arjuna make pancakes together.





	best made at home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SeasOfRhye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeasOfRhye/gifts).



> arjuna came home to me and i just want him to get along with his brother please… then a pal and i were talking and this idea came to my head so this is for you rhye
> 
> i have… so many things to write but enjoy the fluff guys

best made at home

* * *

 

“You, what are you doing?!”

Karna blinked lazily up at Arjuna from his sitting position, twirling a charred pancake between his fingers while a fire raged on all over the stove, already beginning to lick the edges of the countertop.

For reasons unknown to Karna, this only made Arjuna scowl deeper.

Even though he shared a mother with him, Karna thought, he felt like he never really understood him. So he chose not to speak, merely maintaining eye contact with Arjuna before the other man gave up with a sigh.

“Karna, son of Surya. Would you please provide me an explanation as to what happened here?”

“Master wanted pancakes,” Karna replied simply, tearing off a piece off the burnt pancake and eating it.

The “and you weren’t around” went well unspoken, and Karna continued to chew.

…Objectively, this pancake was still more edible than Archaman’s attempts back when he last sent him to retrieve flour, and everyone still ate it, so perhaps this might be suitable—

Arjuna chose to do what he did best and take advantage of his moment of weakness, twisting the pancake out of his grip in a second and shoving a glass of water at his face with the ideal Servant's precision.

“Do not be foolish, drink up and spit it out in the sink before you make yourself sick. Are you a child?”

As Arjuna went to throw a wet towel on the fire, Karna said, “If I must remind you again, I am the elder among the two of us. Respect is tradition among elder siblings, is that not true?”

Arjuna places a hand on his hip. “We were not raised in the same house as brothers. Now, will you help me make _proper_ pancakes for Master or not?”

Karna blinks. “Why are you doing such an action as to get closer to them? I remember you saying many times that you disliked people making bonds with you.”

Arjuna scoffs, but his face imperceptibly betrays him. Between them, the fire has already been put out. “W-who says this is personal interest? I am a Servant, so I am merely doing what is required of me. And you are completely unfit for the task since your head belongs so far up into the heavens so that it may never reach the earth.”

Karna cleans up the remaining ashes. “You are being harsher than usual today… did something happen?”

“You—never mind. Let me teach you, for the next time this happens. Do you still have the ingredients?”

“I put them back where they belonged,” he said, pulling apart another piece of the burnt pancake and munching on it.

Arjuna gently slapped his hand away. “You can eat proper pancakes, if you so insist, instead of those charred ones. Did you try to light the stove with your own fire again?”

“Master suggested I use only a candle’s worth of fire for next time, instead of a stake’s worth.”

“They likely meant you should be using this,” he said, pulling out a lighter and waving it in Karna’s line of sight. “This will properly catch fire on the stove.”

Karna instead chose to ask, “How did you know?”

“What?”

“How did you know I used my flames?”

“I-I’ve never seen you use the lighter even once, even though this old stove produces little but gas…”

“I could have burnt the pancakes from as you say, 'having a head so far up into the heavens so that it may never reach the earth.'"

Arjuna brings his hand to his face. "It is merely common sense. While your pancakes are burnt on the outside, they're quite gooey on the inside, suggesting an incredibly quick cooking time."

Karna smiles just a little as he brings out the flour and eggs in succession. "I see. You've become observant to the actions of others. Well done, little brother."

"Just who is your little brother," Arjuna gripes, before stirring the butter in the pan to make sure it's melted properly before looking to the workstation Karna made. The eggs sit with the flour, milk, baking soda, buttermilk, and sugar.

"Karna, you forgot the yogurt."

Karna's eyebrow raises ever so slightly. "Why yogurt? We aren't making _daal puri._ "

Arjuna gave a long-suffering sigh, the one you would give when dealing with a child's (in Karna's experience, usually Ritsuka) antics. "Because you want the pancakes to be fluffy, Karna."

"Why would you want them to be fluffy?"

Arjuna's palm meets his face. "I... don't think Master wants their pancake to resemble a _roti,_ brother."

"You," Karna voices out, choking from shock. "You called me _brother._ "

Arjuna colors. "I will kill you—if you're not going to get the yogurt, I will," he instead said, grabbing the yogurt out of the fridge. The light was off again, and he frowned. "You think Da Vinci would have repaired this already."

"Honesty is unbecoming of you," Karna said, but he's still smiling in satisfaction. Judging from the look Arjuna gave him, a scowl mixed with a glare, he must have been dissatisfied, but why?

"Anyway, on to the cooking. Listen properly, Karna, for I will not repeat it twice. It should be easy for such a perfect hero like you to know how to repeat instructions, correct?" Arjuna said, calm mask back on and smile blinding but wavering. Karna wondered idly what toothpaste he used for a second, before Arjuna laid his shaky arms with a surprising grip and positioned the whisk in his dominant hand and had him cradle the mixing bowl in the other.

"I am going to pour ingredients into this bowl, and you are going to listen," Arjuna said. "First, we'll pour dry ingredients."

Arjuna inched closer to pour the flour, the sugar, and the baking soda, and Karna felt that somehow, he'd never been closer to Arjuna before now. It filled him with a strange sensation he couldn't really describe. Was it resentment? Disappointment?

...brotherly affection? Is this what their mother Kunti wanted from them?

Who knows.

"—Karna. Karna."

"Hmm?"

Arjuna frowned yet again, walls dropping. "First rule of cooking, never get distracted. Then things will start burning."

"Then why is the butter so charred?"

"Wh—?!"

"Behind you, Arjuna."

Indeed, the butter was so far in the caramelization process that it began to stick to the pan in dark ash, looking completely inedible. Arjuna cursed.

"Hold on a minute," he said. "I will clean this, but pour all the wet ingredients in, one by one and stir _firmly_ so there are no lumps, Karna. Got it?"

"Understood," he said, as Arjuna immediately took the pan off the heat and began to rinse off the mess before the fire alarm started sounding. Luckily, he got it in time, and Arjuna made sure to procure another saucepan.

Stiffly, Karna beat in succession the eggs, the yogurt, and the buttermilk, Arjuna nodding in approval when the mixture was smooth enough and adding a touch more flour.

"Stir again," Arjuna instructed as he grabbed the honey off the top shelf and added a few drops into the mixture.

"Hm, why did you put that in?" Karna asked, "Did we not already add sugar? Furthermore, the density—"

"Mother used to do it with similar kids' meals. Now stop asking questions."

Karna hummed, stirring obediently as Arjuna, for the second time, put the butter in the saucepan and watched it sizzle warmly.

Arjuna handed Karna a ladle. "Scoop some out and pour it in the pan. Slowly."

He did that with just the right flick of the wrist, and a perfectly circular pancake materialized in front of them, bubbling gently.

"I will take over from here, so just watch me. But first, take out the fruit and wash it. Strawberries and blueberries should each be in their separate bowls."

Already reaching into the fridge, Karna asked, "Doesn't Master hate blueberries?"

"You don't."

Karna looked at Arjuna, truly looked at him for the first time that day, and Arjuna didn't back down. "If you don't eat all the pancakes we make from this extra batter, then who will?"

"Then... what about you?”

"Servants do not need to eat, so I am perfectly content," Arjuna said, flipping a pancake and pressing it down with the spatula. It wasn't fully cooked, so extra batter came leaking out of the edges, making him hiss as the pancake became more oval.

Karna awkwardly cleaned the fruit, taking care not to accidentally squish the small, soft garden blueberries from in the tips of his fingers. Meanwhile, Arjuna's pancakes turn out more and more perfect as Karna moves to cut the strawberries into smaller pieces, actively resisting trying to eat some of them.

“Save them for the meal,” Arjuna says in response, but Karna is aware of how much his eyes wander to the fruit as he cuts a square of butter on top of the stacks of pancakes.

One for Ritsuka and co., and one for Karna.

Ritsuka has the larger portion, of course, but the fact that Arjuna made a stack for him and shared his knowledge…

Just how far had Arjuna come?

Karna felt a little pang in his heart for no real reason, but brushed it away to set the plates on the table.

Perhaps telling him outright might not be the best idea, but…

“Arjuna, I’m going to make pancakes for you.”

Arjuna doesn’t meet his eyes. “Oho? Where’s this coming from?”

“I want to apply the knowledge you gave to me. So… I’m going to do it.”

“And I suppose I have no choice in the matter, hm? Very well. But practice makes perfect. Are you willing to endure my constructive criticism?”

“There will be none,” Karna vowed. “For I will make them perfect.”

Arjuna smiles. “That’s so like you, isn’t it,” and says nothing more.

Ritsuka and the others have their meal with gratitude, and Karna savors the taste of one last pancake as he re-enters the kitchen and opens the cabinets.

Because Arjuna is a liar, he will have to expose the truth for him, even if it makes him unhappy because as a hero, this is what is good for him—

—but also maybe, deep in his heart, he wants to see his brother smile again.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> i want to make some new friends so!!!! if you want, my friend code is 354,175,905 
> 
> thank you for reading! comments and kudos are very much appreciated!


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